The rise & history of Indian Hip Hop in Bollywood by Unmit Mittal

While Indian hip-hop music has become more popular among the youth in recent years, it can be dated back to more than a decade, even before 2010, when it existed in the form of online communities such as Orkut and Facebook groups – “These communities often used to organize online cyphers (rap battles) in which two artists sent their poetry ‘dissing’ each other, and their peers voted to declare a winner.” These hip-hop enthusiasts often originated from deprived slums like Dharavi and Kurla, drawing inspiration from rap legends like Eminem, Sean Paul, and 50 Cent, yet could hardly afford to curate their talent into albums while struggling to survive in the cramped urban spaces.

At a time when producing their own albums seemed like an unachievable dream for these artists, the advent of social media platforms like YouTube became a fertile ground for young talent to express their art and expression. Indian hip-hop rapper Naezy aka Naved Sheikh was inspired by Sean Paul’s Temperature at the young age of 13, and in 2014, he shot his first single, Aafat, on an iPad with zero budget, which now has more than five million views on YouTube. Many rap artists acknowledge the role of technology and social media in making their music more accessible to the audience, as well as making international artists more accessible to them, inspiring them to chase their passions.

Hip-hop is synonymous with the music of the oppressed, which grew in the Bronx region in New York, Philadelphia, and other regions of America that had a majority of African-American people. The verses by Tupac and Biggie were more about how they, despite living on opposite ends of the country, faced similar issues in terms of racism, being poor, and watching most of their peers fall into the sickness that is drug addiction.

So, rap was probably the only way they could express their emotions and their angst while going through all the issues plaguing their community.

This realization of looking inwards for inspiration rather than aping what international rappers were doing helped several aspiring rappers in creating songs that would enable the audience to relate to it. Jointly founded by Ankit Khanna and Raftaar, Kalamkaar encourages young hip-hop, rap, pop, and EDM musicians to bring out an exciting roster of young rappers and underground artists. As luck would have it, the birth of Kalamkaar records was born more out of the need than the desire to do something of their own.